Tracker

GOP Congresswoman Blamed Wildfires on Secret Jewish Space Laser Axios has a small squib about “The Mischief Makers,” a handful of idiosyncratic congressional backbenchers who make trouble for their respective party leadership. The leading Democratic mischief-maker is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who advocates some left-wing views I consider simplistic and impractical and, in some cases, poll badly. The top example of a conservative mischief-maker, presented in perfect symmetry, is Marjorie Taylor Greene. Greene’s views are just a bit more controversial. They include, but are by no means limited to, the following: • The QAnon conspiracy theory, which holds that Donald Trump is secretly fighting a worldwide child-sex-slavery ring that was supposed to culminate in the mass arrest of his political opposition, is “worth listening to.” • Muslims don’t belong in government. • 9/11 was an inside job. • Shootings at Parkland, Sandy Hook, and Las Vegas were staged. • “Zionist supremacists” are secretly masterminding Muslim immigration to Europe in a scheme to outbreed white people. • Leading Democratic officials should be executed. The most recent Greene view to be unearthed comes via Eric Hananoki. Just over two years ago, Greene suggested in a Facebook post that wildfires in California were not natural. Forests don’t just catch fire, you know. Rather, the blazes had been started by PG&E, in conjunction with the Rothschilds, using a space laser, in order to clear room for a high-speed rail project. GOP Congresswoman Blamed Wildfires on Jewish Space Laser (nymag.com)

Wisconsin Vaccine Saboteur Steven Brandenburg Is a Flat-Earther, FBI Document Reveals -Grafton Police Department The Wisconsin pharmacist who intentionally sabotaged hundreds of doses of the Moderna coronavirus vaccine because he thought COVID-19 was a hoax, also believes the earth is flat and the sky is actually a “shield put up by the Government to prevent individuals from seeing God.” That’s according to a newly-unsealed FBI search warrant application obtained by The Daily Beast, which the bureau filed earlier this month requesting permission to analyze an iPhone, a laptop, and a thumb drive seized from Steven Brandenburg when he was arrested in late December. (Makes sense to me) The QAnon Timeline: Four Years, 5,000 Drops and Countless Failed Prophecies QAnon is not a static conspiracy theory. Since it first emerged in 2017, it has continuously evolved, focusing on different key topics and adopting elements of other conspiracy theories. As Bellingcat has recently written, this elasticity has been the key to its success. With the inauguration of US President Joe Biden, QAnon’s faithful are adrift and confused. Their distress has caused some observers to ask whether their cult may collapse entirely. That might be premature. Failed prophecies do not always collapse elaborate conspiracies — if that were true, how could QAnon have endured for four years? If we cannot predict its end, we can at least trace QAnon from its beginning — looking at all the falsehoods and conspiracies it peddled, from the initial Mueller investigations to the era of COVID-19 and the last days of the Donald Trump presidency. The QAnon Timeline: Four Years, 5,000 Drops and Countless Failed Prophecies - bellingcat

You get what you (may) pay for. Apparently Trump's defence will be not that he did not encourage the sedition, but that he was justified because the election was stolen from him. This is why no other lawyer was willing to represent him. His current lawyers had better make sure they get a large retainer in advance.

Los Angeles mass vaccination site closed for an hour due to anti-vaccine protests In yet another act of insanity, or just the new conservative nihilism, a COVID-19 vaccination site at Dodger Stadium, in Los Angeles, had to be temporarily closed Saturday afternoon after dozens of far-right extremists showed up to protest the very existence of the vaccination program, shout at those arriving for vaccination, and provide living examples of what this nation will become once conservatives have gotten rid of all the public schools and successfully convinced a majority of Americans that their imaginations are more authoritative than all of history and science combined, because a Facebook post or swollen-headed conservative television host told them so. How do we know that it was far-right extremists leading this anti-vaccination group, which resulted in the closure of the site for roughly an hour by on-site officials? Because they left a handy trail of breadcrumbs. The Los Angeles Times reports that in a social media post organizing the event, participants asked to "please refrain from wearing Trump/MAGA attire as we want our statement to resonate with the sheeple. No flags but informational signs only." Ah, yes. Very clever. So instead of the usual pro-Trump flags, we were treated to anti-lockdown signs, calls for the state's Democratic governor to resign, claims that "CNN IS LYING TO YOU," and the other frequent staples of far-right anti-lockdown rallies around the nation. Oh, and the usual QAnon-isms, as with a sign proclaiming "Tell Bill Gates To Go VACCINATE HIMSELF!" Los Angeles mass vaccination site closed for an hour due to anti-vaccine protests - Alternet.org

Apparently the GOP strategy now that they have lost the federal elections is to shift their emphasis to state governments in the expectation that they will be able to execute the Trump strategy of overruling the electoral processes at the state level if they do not go the GOP way. This is, at best, a very iffy legal concept but they are assuming that it will be all they have.

There has to be a minimum of two weeks between shots, and FYI: the first vaccination does not kick in fully for two weeks.

What they are not telling you is that the swab has to reach the back of your throat.

Well, he is an expert in repressing these.

A bit better but still no cause for celebration.

One of Trump's favourite tactics is to refuse to pay his attorney(s) and then sue them for misrepresentation Then when he loses that, he refuses to pay those lawyers and then threaten to sue them if they do not accept pennies on the dollar as settlement, etc etc.

Gates intended this as a jab at the conspiracy nuts in the US. It kinda follows that the leader of the Proud Boys in the US was an FBI informer. I like that Gates has a sense of ha-ha.

GOP Lawmakers Seek Tougher Voting Rules After Record Turnout, Election Losses AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Republican lawmakers in statehouses across the country are moving swiftly to attack some of the voting methods that fueled the highest turnout for a presidential election in 50 years. Although most legislative sessions are just getting underway, the Brennan Center for Justice, a public policy institute, has already tallied more than 100 bills in 28 states meant to restrict voting access. More than a third of those proposals are aimed at limiting mail voting, while other bills seek to strengthen voter ID requirements and registration processes, as well as allow for more aggressive means to remove people from voter rolls. “Unfortunately, we are seeing some politicians who want to manipulate the rules of the game so that some people can participate and some can’t,” said Myrna Pérez, director of the voting rights and elections program at the Brennan Center. GOP Lawmakers Seek Tougher Voting Rules After Record Turnout, Election Losses | HuffPost

We already have had a fascist president who was as dumb as a bag of rocks but was a glove-puppet of some people who were smarter than he (not a great feat). There is the Putin scenario- he was installed as a useful fool by powerful men in Russia but was clever enough to outwit, and jail them. I am not sure in the GOP or adherents would fit that description, but many who would try. Trump was undone by his pride and stupidity, but the next one may not be. Top Trump campaign fundraiser played key role in planning the rally that preceded the siege: text messages In the week leading up to the Jan. 6 rally in Washington, D.C., that exploded into an attack on the Capitol, a top Trump campaign fundraiser issued a directive to a woman who had been overseeing planning for the event. “Get the budget and vendors breakdown to me and Justin," Caroline Wren wrote to Cindy Chafian, a self-described “constitutional conservative," in a Dec. 28 text message obtained by ProPublica. Wren was no ordinary event planner. She served as a deputy to Donald Trump Jr.'s girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, at Trump Victory, a joint presidential fundraising committee during the 2020 campaign. The Justin mentioned in her text was Justin Caporale, a former top aide to first lady Melania Trump, whose production company helped put on the event at the Ellipse. Text messages and an event-planning memo obtained by ProPublica, along with an interview with Chafian, indicate that Wren, a Washington insider with a low public profile, played an extensive role in managing operations for the event. The records show that Wren oversaw logistics, budgeting, funding and messaging for the Jan. 6 rally that featured President Donald Trump. Chafian told ProPublica that Wren and others had pushed her aside as plans intensified, including as a late effort was made to get Trump to speak at the event. On Dec. 29, after receiving the budget, Wren instructed Chafian, via text, to hold off on printing event-related slogans “until we decide what the messaging is and we have no clue on timing because it all depends on the votes that day so we won't know timing for a few more days." The “timing" appears to be a reference to Congress' Jan. 6 vote to certify the election results. Wren's services were enlisted by a major donor to Trump's presidential campaign, according to The Wall Street Journal, which reported Saturday that Julie Jenkins Fancelli, the heiress to Publix Super Markets, committed some $300,000 to fund the Jan. 6 rally. Top Trump campaign fundraiser played key role in planning the rally that preceded the siege: text messages - Alternet.org Five attorneys quit days before impeachment trial and his backers turn on him Former President Donald Trump is apparently having some trouble finding legal representation in his upcoming impeachment trial. All five lawyers, including former federal litigators and Trump's anticipated lead attorneys Butch Bowers and Deborah Barbier, have quit less than two weeks before the trial is scheduled to begin the week of February 8, unnamed sources told CNN. Other attorneys with the good sense to distance themselves from Trump include South Carolina lawyers Johnny Gasser and Greg Harris and Josh Howard, a North Carolina attorney who worked on the Monica Lewinsky investigation during former President Bill Clinton's time in office, CNN reported. "A person familiar with the situation called it a 'mutual" decision,' New York Times correspondent Maggie Haberman tweeted Saturday. "Bowers has been noticeably muted for someone leading a Trump defense, choosing not to talk to most reporters. The person familiar with the situation said there was no chemistry between Bowers and Trump."

This is a probable scenario, but it comes with real risks. If you think the right wingers went nuts over losing the election, both houses and the presidency, what would follow another loss in the mid-terms and the 2024 election is close to outright guerilla civil war. That would fulfill Putin's fondest dreams- a broken and divided America.

At least Bill Gates has a sense of humor about it!

Good enough to challenge for a starting role in Regina.

Florida rabbi arrested in connection with deadly US Capitol riot A rabbi in Florida is now the latest person of interest in connection with the deadly U.S. Capitol riots that erupted on Jan. 6 amid the Electoral College certification. According to WFLA-TV, the U.S. Department of Justice has arrested Michael Stepakoff, of Tampa Bay, Fla., on a string of charges for his role in the U.S. Capitol siege. A criminal complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court of Washington D.C., details the incriminating evidence that led to Stepakoff's arrest. Federal authorities have revealed that there is "surveillance video which shows him standing inside the Capitol building during the raid and a Facebook post the FBI says was made by his wife, which states he was inside the building and asks the public for prayers for his safety," according to FOX-13. Florida rabbi arrested in connection with deadly US Capitol riot - Alternet.org Republican accused of threatening AOC after he warns of 'alternative means' to condemn her remarks Horned Viking 'Shaman' Who Stormed Capitol Now Willing To Testify Against Trump The Capitol decked out in a fur hat with horns is now willing to testify against his former hero Donald Trump at the former president’s impeachment trial, according to his lawyer. Jacob Chansley of Arizona, who calls himself the “QAnon Shaman,” feels that he has been “betrayed” by Trump, who failed to pardon him and others who attacked the Capitol, said attorney Al Watkins, The Associated Press reported. Watkins said in a statement Thursday that Chansley is willing to discuss “whether the words of former President Trump were understood by Mr. Chansley to be nothing short of an invitation to go to the Capitol with the president to fight like hell,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. Horned Viking 'Shaman' Who Stormed Capitol Now Willing To Testify Against Trump | HuffPost Canada (huffingtonpost.ca)

One would think that would automatically mean arrest for anyone who says these sort of things, but with a lot of cops sympathetic to Qanon, the wheels of justice turn very slowly if at all.

Absolutely, at least many if them did. A large scale uprising would have justified Trump, or rather have given him an excuse to declare martial law.

This makes it both obvious and imperative that the Democrats pursue Trump with all possible and legal vigour and speed. Once Trump is shown up in court and the US Senate as the cowardly racist and would-be tyrant he lusts to become, much of his mystique will vanish But it also follows that the indictment and trial of Trump will absolutely provoke his zealots to violence.

Six degrees of sedition: Was master trickster Roger Stone behind the Capitol riot? The night before a mob of Donald Trump's diehard supporters laid siege to the U.S. Capitol, longtime Trump confidant and presidential-pardon recipient Roger Stone made his first public appearance in Washington since his trial, giving a pump-up speech at a Freedom Plaza rally organized by a group called Stop the Steal. In a helpful moment of clarity, the emcee for the evening, Stone associate and fellow convicted felon Ali Alexander (formerly Ali Akbar), a driving force behind the events that led to the attack the following afternoon, noted that "It was Roger Stone who coined the term first: Stop the Steal." Stone did more than coin the term. He registered it with the federal government as a political nonprofit more than four years earlier, in 2016, and appears to have a hand in its successor, which was created less than a month before the 2020 election. But while Alexander went on to claim to be the "father of the movement," that too traces to Stone, who had organized not just the 2016 effort, but another one two years later. All of this traces back deep in Republican dirty-trick history, all the way to the "Brooks Brothers Riot" orchestrated by Stone to interfere with the 2000 Miami-Dade County recount and help make George W. Bush president. When Stone, escorted by bodyguards from the Oath Keepers anti-government militia group, delivered the keynote speech at the Freedom Plaza rally on Jan. 5, after showing off his dance moves, in his pinstripe suit and fedora hat, to a hip-hop remix of a song honoring his innocence, he made clear that Alexander had only "revived the Stop the Steal movement." In other words, all of this was, at its root, a Roger Stone production. It appears that Stone bears as much responsibility as anyone — and quite a bit more than most — for the deadly riot that unfolded the next day, though the extent of his influence has not yet come into public focus. Roger Stone created the first Stop the Steal organization in April 2016, raising and spending tens of thousands of dollars for the anticipated mission of defending Trump through the contested Republican primary and later challenging an apparent Hillary Clinton general election win, neither of which proved necessary. That group was shuttered in 2017, but Stone, a Florida resident, reactivated the movement after the 2018 midterms — specifically to protect then-Florida Gov. Rick Scott's narrow victory in a U.S. Senate race over Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson. Stone even got help from Alexander, an itinerant provocateur who came aboard to help recruit for the effort, laying out his vision in a Periscope video, as reported in Right Wing Watch, in which Alexander said he hoped to motivate not just Republicans, but QAnon followers, Democrats and "homeless people in all the adjacent counties" to monitor the vote count. Six degrees of sedition: Was master trickster Roger Stone behind the Capitol riot? | Salon.com

Whatthehell....there are lots of spare people in Alberta. Nobody is really gonna miss a few thousands. Talk about doubling down.